Father shoots adult children, Puyallup police say

PUYALLUP — A 69-year-old man shot his sleeping adult son and daughter at a Puyallup home, fatally wounding the woman, police said Sunday.

The man called 911 around 3:30 a.m. Sunday and told a dispatcher he had just shot his children. As officers surrounded the home, dispatchers talked the man into putting his gun down. He surrendered moments later, deputy Chief Dave McDonald said.

Officers entered the home and found two gravely wounded victims in different rooms of the house. Both suffered gunshots to the head and appear to have been shot in their sleep, McDonald said. Two children under the ages of 10 and the man’s wife were removed from the house. Police believe the man shot is the father of the young children.

“The grandparents were taking care of these kids,” McDonald told the Tacoma News Tribune. “He’s just, as far as we knew, the grandpa.”

Both victims, a 43-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man, were taken to Tacoma General Hospital, where the woman later died, he said. The man was in “grave condition” condition, police said.

Their names have not been released.

Police have responded several times to the home for domestic violence-related disputes, McDonald said. Those incidents always involved disputes between adults family members, such as the children, and the grandparents, he said.

“I know they were frustrated,” McDonald said about the grandparents.

A neighbor said police have responded before to deal with the couple’s son.

“It was common to hear fighting with the son,” said the neighbor, Beau Nye.

He said two young boys live at the house with the grandparents.

“They were playing all day yesterday,” Nye said of the boys. “Chasing each other and laughing. They were having a great time.”